Location: 98 km (61 mi) from Salzburg Map
Lake Toplitz or Toplitzsee is a small mountain lake in the Styrian part of the Salzkammergut in the municipality of Grundlsee, at the southern foot of the Dead Mountains and is 718 m above sea level. A. The outlet of the Toplitzsee is the Toplitz, which drains via the Traun into the Danube. The myth that surrounds the lake is that gold and art treasures were sunk in the lake at the end of the Second World War. To date, however, only boxes of counterfeit money have been found. The Toplitzsee, which is owned by the Austrian Federal Forests, is a popular destination for excursions because of its beautiful location.
Naval Experimental Station
From 1943 to 1945 there was a test
station of the Chemical-Physical Research Institute of the Navy
(CPVA) at Toplitzsee. The work of the CPVA at Toplitzsee mainly
consisted of testing explosives and weapons. The physical processes
during use were measured and partly supported by theory. The
undisturbed conditions required for this could not be guaranteed by
the sea and a deep lake was sought as a location. During the first
attempts at the Pulvermaar and the Attersee, the underwater blasting
caused major damage to the fish population and the CPVA came into
conflict with the local fishermen and the Reich Ministry for Food
and Agriculture. These locations were therefore no longer an option.
Since the fish stocks of the Toplitzsee were not used at the time
and the lake is very deep and isolated, an experimental station was
set up on the north-west shore in spring 1943. The official office
of the CPVA was the Villa Roth in Gößl.
The first series of
tests were started in September 1943 to investigate the short-range
and long-distance effects of explosives in underwater explosions.
The explosives were delivered via the train station in Bad Aussee
and stored in an ammunition bunker on the bank. A raft with
oscillographs and other measuring devices was in the lake for the
measurements. The first experiments were carried out with
trinitrotoluene with less than 10 kg. Later, torpedo heads weighing
300 kg were also used. The largest charge of 4000 kg of Schiesswolle
18 was detonated on June 30, 1944. The detonation of such a large
charge for test purposes was a rarity even during wartime.
Therefore, Gauleiter August Eigruber and high-ranking naval officers
came to the Toplitzsee. Among them Friedrich Brandes, head of the
CPVA, and Rear Admiral Wilhelm Rhein. On July 31, 1944, the
explosives investigations at Toplitzsee were completed.
After
the explosives investigations were completed, work on the Ursel
project began in the summer of 1944. It was a planned underwater
missile for defensive use. In the event of an attack with underwater
bombs, the missiles should allow the submerged submarine to escape.
The charge was intended to create a hole of about 5 m² in a
destroyer's hull and was fixed with 15 kg of explosives. A length of
1.8 m, a caliber of 15 cm and a weight of 80 kg were specified as
dimensions. The rocket parts were manufactured by WASAG and
delivered to Gößl via Bad Aussee. Presumably fewer than 50 launches
were carried out in the Toplitzsee.
At the beginning of April 1945, the order was issued to close the CPVA office. Equipment, documents and explosives were destroyed in Villa Roth and by the lake. Measuring devices from the experimental station were also sunk in the lake. The remaining explosives were detonated on the shore. The remaining equipment, such as the propellants of the underwater rockets, were burned. At the end of April/beginning of May, a transport by Aktion Bernhard traveled from the Redl-Zipf concentration camp to the Salzkammergut. The transport carried crates of counterfeit British pound notes, which were dumped in the lake. It is no longer possible to determine today why the Toplitzsee was chosen as the place of sinking. They were probably ordered to continue to Bad Aussee, where they found out about the only military station in the area, the naval research station at Toplitzsee. Due to the large amount of counterfeit money, burning was out of the question and it was decided to sink the crates. Since the road was not passable for trucks due to the snow conditions, residents of Gößl transported the crates to the lake with their horse and cart. There are such contradictory statements about the actual sinking process that it can no longer be reconstructed.
Although the population knew about the sinking of crates in the lake,
little importance was attached to the action. With the emergence of
rumors about the relocation of large fortunes to the Ausseerland,
interest in Toplitzsee increased again. It was speculated that there
were tangible assets, jewellery, gold, currency, platinum etc. in the
boxes and the newspapers picked up the subject again. For example, the
lake is said to contain gold from the Rommel treasure that SS
Obersturmbannfuhrer Otto Skorzeny brought from Italy. It was speculated
that files from the Reich Security Main Office or Heinrich Himmler's
diaries were lying in the lake. Rumors also arose that various deaths in
the post-war years up to 1950 were connected with the search for hidden
treasures. Most reports are exaggerated or entirely made up. However,
some starting points for their emergence can be proven. A cassette with
gold was found at Villa Kerry in Altaussee, which was buried in the last
days of the war. The staff of the Naval Experimental Station received
silver plates and platinum wire as their last pay. Some sailors hid the
silver plaques in the rafters of the Gasthaus Veit and picked them up
after the war ended.
Salvage
In the summer of 1959, on the
initiative of Stern journalist Wolfgang Löhde, divers brought the first
boxes of counterfeit money to light. Seven boxes of counterfeit pound
notes with a pseudo value of around DM 12 million and a box of files
from the SS counterfeiting workshop have been recovered.
The many
tree trunks that do not rot in the lake make diving extremely difficult
and dangerous. On October 6, 1963, a diver drowned in the lake while on
an unauthorized treasure hunt. The diving company was run, among other
things, by a right-wing extremist former member of Wilhelm Canaris'
intelligence service and had primarily political backgrounds. The lake
was mapped during the four-week search for the diver's body and its
recovery. The dives to salvage war material that were subsequently
carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Interior should
have lasted until the spring of 1964, but were not resumed after the
winter break for cost reasons. From that time on, the lake was closed to
any underwater activity by the responsible authorities. The diving ban
lasted until 1983.
1983 dives were undertaken by Hans Fricke and
employees with the GEO submersible. They also only found boxes of
counterfeit money and war relics.
In 2000, another team from the
American diving company Oceaneering examined the seabed for three weeks.
The only yield: a box full of crown corks (bottle tops) that five
regulars' table brothers had sunk in the lake in 1984. The Austrian
Federal Forests, as the owner of the lake, allowed a US company to carry
out a detailed search for the years 2005-2008. Another search operation,
which was to be led by the American Norman Scott, was approved by the
Austrian Federal Forests at the end of March 2009. The lake would have
been examined for any war relics, but before each find was salvaged, the
water experts in Scharfling would have had to carry out an environmental
compatibility test. The project, postponed several times, was finally
canceled by the diving team in 2009.
In 2012, the Austrian
Federal Forests considered having the lake scientifically dived and
mapped again.
Hermitage
As on all lakes in the inner
Salzkammergut, there was also a hermitage for timber drift at the outlet
of the Toplitzsee, since very large amounts of water could be stored
there with relatively little means. The average lifespan of a wooden
hermitage was 30 years. In order to reduce the large consumption of wood
due to the frequent new buildings, the Toplitzseeklause was rebuilt in
1865 with stone blocks. After the end of the drift, the hermitage fell
into disrepair and the wooden parts were reconstructed in 1977. In
addition to the Seeklause on Lake Hallstatt, it is the only functioning
Seeklause in the Salzkammergut and is a listed building.
Tourism
Because of its beautiful location, the Toplitzsee is a popular
destination and is crossed as part of the 3-lake tour to visit the
Kammersee with the source of the Traun. The eastern shore can be reached
with a Plätte, the typical ship of the inner Salzkammergut. The
fisherman's hut on the west bank is run as a catering establishment.
A memorial stone by the lake commemorates the first meeting between
Archduke Johann of Austria and his future wife Anna Plochl.
In
1959, the film Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee was shot at the lake with Gert
Fröbe. The lake is also mentioned in the James Bond film Goldfinger from
1964 with reference to the treasure allegedly hidden there.
In
the film Top Secret from 1971, the Toplitzsee is one of the two main
locations, but is called Fintersee in the film.
The Toplitzsee is cut into the mountains of the Dead Mountains like a
fjord. In the north are the Gößler Wand and the Beerenkogel (1194 m
above sea level), in the south the steep flanks of the Black Forest rise
up. The banks are steep, only on the west side near the outflow and on
the north-east side at the transition to the Kammersee they are flatter,
otherwise rocks dominate. The lake, stretching from southwest to
northeast, has a length of 1.9 km and a maximum width of 400 m. The
surface is about 54 ha, the average depth is 62 m. The lake basin shows
steep slopes except for the northeastern area. Only from a depth of
about 80 meters does the gradient gradually decrease and a relatively
large bottom zone with a maximum depth of 103 m spreads out. The water
volume is 33.7 million cubic meters.
There is no footpath along
the lake. The company Schifffahrt Grundlsee operates a shipping
connection between the west and east banks. The western end of the lake
can be reached via Toplitzseestraße, which is closed to public traffic,
in about 20 minutes on foot from the district of Gößl.
Hydrology
The hydrological catchment area of the Toplitzsee has a total area of
70.7 km² and lies entirely in the Dead Mountains. The lake is mainly
fed underground by a karst system that is fed by the Lahngang lakes. The
Toplitzsee receives a further inflow from the Kammersee to the east,
which is connected via an artificial rock canal. However, this only
carries water in very rainy years. However, the outflow of the Kammersee
to the Toplitzsee also occurs underground. In addition, the lake is fed
by the two streams Vorderbach and Hinterbach, which fall into the lake
from the north. The lake is drained by the Toplitz, which flows into the
Grundlsee. The mean discharge of the lake is 5.94 m³/s.
Geology
The lake basin of the Toplitzsee is located along a
west-southwest/east-northeast trending geological fault. This line,
known as the Toplitzsee fault, runs from the Grundlsee via the Kammersee
into the Dead Mountains. During the ice ages, the mighty Grundlsee local
glacier, which flowed from the high plateau of the Dead Mountains into
the Aussee Basin, also followed this fault-related weak zone and in the
process widened the valley and excavated the tongue basin of the
Grundlsee. In the late Ice Age, Toplitzsee and Kammersee were still part
of Grundlsee. At the base of the lake, salt-bearing Haselgebirge was
dissolved in the lake water.
limnology
circulation
The Toplitzsee is a meromictic lake with
a clearly pronounced stratification. The water no longer contains any
oxygen below about 20 m and the salinity increases significantly (0.75%)
with greater depth. The bottom of the lake is made up of sludge rich in
hydrogen sulphide. During the spring and autumn circulations, the lake
is only mixed up to a depth of about 20 meters. The approximately 80
meter thick Monimolimnion remains unaffected by the circulations. The
reasons for this are a water surface that is small in relation to the
depth as a target for the wind, a particularly wind-protected location
and a particularly salty deep water with a greater density. During the
summer stagnation phase, the water temperature on the surface averages
16.8 °C. The maximum value was measured in August 2003 with 20.2 °C. The
epilimnion of the Toplitzsee is only very thin. Temperatures drop
rapidly just below the surface, down to around 5°C at a depth of 15
metres. From 15 meters down the temperatures start to rise again. The
reason for this metalimnic temperature minimum lies in the circulation
conditions in the Toplitzsee. In the course of the spring circulation,
colder surface water reaches a depth of about 15 to 20 meters, while the
monimolimnion remains unaffected with an average temperature of 5.8 °C.
Despite the subsequent heating on the surface, the low temperatures in
the metalimnion persist for a long time.
Trophy
The lake has a
low concentration of nutrients and is therefore oligotrophic. A mean
phosphorus content of 6.3 µg/l was calculated in the epilimnion for the
years 2003 to 2006. The mean values above ground were 52 µg/l. Due to
the low phytoplankton concentrations and the low algae growth, the
average summer visibility depth is 8.8 meters.
Plankton
The
aerobic plankton in the Toplitzsee is concentrated in the space from the
surface down to a depth of 20 meters. The almost oxygen-free deep layer,
on the other hand, is populated by an anaerobic or oligoaerobic
biocenosis in which iron and sulfur oxidizing microorganisms play the
main role. Cryptophyceae and diatoms, especially species of the genus
Asterionella, Stephanodiscus and Synedra, form the main component of
phytoplankton. The zooplankton is represented with significantly more
biomass. Of the rotifers, Kellicottia longispina, Keratella cochlearis
and Keratella hiemalis were frequently found. The crustacean plankton of
the Toplitzsee consists mainly of the species Eudiaptomus gracilis,
Cyclops abyssorum, Daphnia hyalina and Eubosmina longispina.
Flora and vegetation
Stiff sedge (Carex elata), bladder sedge (Carex
vesicaria), burnt buttercup (Ranunculus flammula) and marsh fern
(Thelypteris palustris), among others, grow in the boggy areas on the
northwest and western banks. Near the outflow in the shallower bank
areas, the submerged vegetation consists of stoneworts (Chara sp.),
alpine pondweed (Potamogeton alpinus), spiked milfoil (Myriophyllum
spicatum) and the mountain genera of hairy water-crowfoot. Long-leaved
pondweed (Potamogeton praelongus) also grows near the jetty on the
north-east bank.
Fauna
Little is known about the original fish
stocks of the Toplitzsee. During World War II there was a naval test
station on the lake. Almost the entire fish stock of the lake was
destroyed by underwater explosions. Today there are fish in the lake
again due to stocking measures. The fish population of the Toplitzsee is
limited to the upper, oxygen-rich water layers and today consists of the
following species: burbot (Lota lota), chub (Squalius cephalus), minnow
(Phoxinus phoxinus), perch (Perca fluviatilis), pike (Esox lucius) ,
bullhead (Cottus gobio), brown loach (Barbatula barbatula), lake trout
(Salmo trutta) and arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). In the summer of
2002, crayfish (Astacus astacus) were initially stocked on the southern
shore of the lake.
Natural reserve
The lake, with its
undeveloped shores with adjoining wetlands and wooded steep slopes,
offers habitats for many animal and plant species. The Toplitzsee is
located in the European protected area Dead Mountains with Altausseer
See European protected area no.
Onomastics
The Ennstal was the
settlement area of the Alpine Slavs and many field names are of Slavic
origin. Toplitz derives from the Slavic toplica and means warm spring
water.